Memory, Storytelling and GIS Digital Archive: Introducing the COVID-19 Memory Archival Project

The COVID-19 Memory Archival Project is an educational and scholarly initiative that seeks to preserve individual and shared experiences and reflections during the COVID-19 outbreak through rich media storytelling and geographic information system (GIS) mapping. In this chapter, we introduce the archive project and story map collection as an inquiry into participatory and immersive digital archiving as a means for understanding personal memory, experience, identity and agency in the media aftermath of a global pandemic. Originally initiated as a response to emergency online teaching during the early stages of the COVID-19 lockdown, we explore the pedagogical potential of the ArcGIS StoryMaps platform in the undergraduate classroom. Through analysis of archive story maps and comparative studies with earlier community-based disaster-oriented online archives, we present new insights into the media moment of 2020, and how that shapes perception and understanding of complex events. Finally, we reflect upon the function of virtual memorials and how they might facilitate discourse and contribute to broader geocultural dialogues.

Duke Scholars

Author Benjamin Lee Bacon DKU Faculty